с that he might not write even to the Pope himself;a but perhaps his genius may have been all the more active in practical matters. These commissioners were charged with two letters to Henry, containing respectively exhortations to peace and threats of punishment,—the second to be delivered if the first should be found ineffectual.b There was now a general wish for an accommodation. Henry had spoken of taking the cross and going to Jerusalem, if peace could be established with the Archbishop; and he was at least heartily desirous of peace, although the opposite party tax him with insincerity in his offer of concessions for the sake of it,—such as that appeals to Rome should be freely allowed, and that clerks should not be brought before the secular courts." The French King was eager to act as a mediator; and the banished clergy, weary of their exile, were willing to meet any conciliatory measures.* The King, who in the preceding year had again been in communication with the anti-papal party,'-who had lately declared that he was ready to ally himself with the Musulmans, and even to embrace "the errors of Nou "In ordine suo inhibitum est' (iv. 177). "Fratrum Grandimontensium consuetudo non est ut scribant alicui" (ib. 179). There is, however, no such prohibition in the rule or other documents of the order, as printed by Martene, De Antiquis Eccl. Ritibus, t. iv.-the nearest approach being c. 24:— Præcipimus ut de rebus vobis datis vel dandis nusquam scriptum causa placitandi faciatis, nec 66 etiam placitare præsumatis ;" and c Herb., vii. 258. d Joh. Sarisb., Ep. 242. e See e. g. Joh. Sarisb., i. 278, ed. Giles. f S. T. C., vi. 279; Joh. Sar., Ep. 142. reddin" (the great enemy of the Christians in the Holy Land) rather than admit Thomas as Archbishop,a -now changed his line of action, and endeavoured to obtain the Pope's consent to the Archbishop's deposition or translation by offering to subsidize Alexander's allies, the anti-Imperialist cities of Lombardy, to pay the Pope's heavy debts, to give him a large sum of money, and to purchase for him the interest of the venal Romans, who still kept him an exile from his city. But, although the expedient of a translation was supported by many persons of influence, Becket steadily professed that he would not give up the rights of his church; that he would rather die (a profession which, although doubtless sincere, is somewhat too often repeated) than consent to desert her cause by a resignation of his see. b On the Epiphany, 1169, the Kings of France and England held a conference on political affairs at Montmirail, near Chartres, where Louis induced Becket to be present. The Papal commissioners were also there, and have left their report of the proceedings. Herbert of Bosham represents himself as engaged in advising his master to beware of repeating the weakness which he had shown at Clarendon, when the Archbishop, before he could answer, was summoned into the presence of the Kings. He fell on his knees before Henry, who immediately raised him up. Becket then lamented the differences which had arisen, charging all the evil of them on his own insufficiency, and concluded by saying, d a Joh., Ep. 244. b Ib., Ep. 288; Thom., Ep. 4. Thom., Ep. 338. d vii. 261. that he threw himself wholly on the King's mercy, “saving the honour of God." This reservation took by surprise many of those who had advised him to concession, and believed that they had prevailed with him; and, although the Archbishop professed to have substituted "salvo honore Dei" for "salvo ordine nostro" from a wish to avoid the repetition of the offensive formula, the King would not admit any distinction between the two, but burst into a violent fit of passion. To allow such a phrase, he said, would seem as if he himself had no regard for God's honour. After having reproached Becket with his pride, ingratitude, and disloyalty, "See," he cried to the King of France, "how foolishly and proudly this man has deserted his church, not driven out by me, but secretly running off by night. He would persuade you that he is a champion for the Church, and by this pretext has deceived people both many and great. But I have always allowed and wished, and I still do so, that he should hold and govern his church as freely as any of his predecessors." He asked Becket whether he would yield him that amount of obedience which his five predecessors since the Conquest -some of them saints and workers of miracles-had shown to the least of former Kings, or that which by . a Joh. Sarish., ii. 199. 66 between the two; nor does the idea of irony appear to have entered into the mind of any who were present (see, e. g., Joh. Sar., ii. 199, ed. Giles). William and Otho had made a similar proposal b M. Thierry characterises this proposal as evidently ironical, and containing at least as much of mental reservation as Becket could have put into the clause 'saving God's honour'" (iii. 151). There | (iii. 20; sup. p. 206). is, however, a very clear difference a the evidence of a hundred men from England and a hundred from Normandy and Anjou should appear to have been formerly customary; and he professed himself willing to leave the matter to be decided by the bishops of France. All who were present declared that the King could not be expected to humble himself further. "My Lord Archbishop," said Louis, "do you seek to be more than a saint?" and the Pope's commissioners, with many princes and nobles, entreated the Archbishop to submit. But he still remained inflexible. No such promise, he said, had ever been required from any of his predecessors, except the blessed Anselm," who had twice gone into banishment rather than consent. It was true that former Archbishops had borne with many abuses; but, as they had corrected much evil, so it was his duty to strive against that which still remained. All were disgusted at this pertinacity. The Kings left the meeting without saluting him; the French nobles loudly reproached him as a felon and a traitor; the Papal commissioners cried out against his impracticable pride and selfwill; and his own clerks strongly remonstrated with him for having caused the ruin of all their hopes. As they were riding away, the horse of one of the clerks, Henry of Houghton, stumbled: "Go on," said Henry, loud enough for his master to hear, "saving the honour of d a Joh. Sarisb., ii. 168, ed. Giles; | Joh. Sarisb., Ep. 285; Herb., vii. Garnier, 108. 259-265; Garnier, 107-8; Gervase, b See Eadmer, ap. Anselm, ed. 1406. Gerberon, 67. d Herb., vii. 266; Garnier, 109. God and of holy Church and my order;" and the Archbishop allowed the taunt to pass unnoticed." "Brother," said his confidential friend the Bishop of Poitiers, “take heed lest the Church be destroyed by thee." "By me," was the reply, "with God's blessing it shall never be destroyed." Herbert compares the advisers who thronged around the Archbishop at the conference to executioners, and him to their victim; and on this occasion applies to him the text, "I have trodden the winepress alone." The evening passed without the visit or the message with which Louis on such occasions was accustomed to favour the Archbishop; and for three days, while the exiles travelled in the King's train, he held no communication with them, and discontinued their usual allowance of provisions, so that the Archbishop was indebted for his very maintenance, "as a beggar," to the charity of the Bishop of Poitiers and the Archbishop of Sens.a The only circumstance which occurred to cheer him was the enthusiasm of the people of Chartres, who, as he passed through the streets of their city, flocked to look at him, as the champion "who would not for the sake of Kings deny his God, nor be silent as to His honour." The exiles had returned to Sens, and were engaged in consultation as to their prospects and their future course. a Fitzst., i. 262. b Herb., vii. 267. Comp. Ep. 144 to this Bishop. Garnier says that Henry, regretting, on reflection, the loss of the late opportunity, sent him at midnight to Becket, with a request that the negotiation might be resumed; but that the Archbishop refused. 110. c vii. 265-6. d Alan, i. 367; Herbert, 276 (who, however, do not quite agree). e Herb., vii. 276. |